Riverwise Detroit

Detroit Metro Times

Why Hunger

"Placing people that have been historically and systemically marginalized by structures of power in a place where they have the most agency around changing and dismantling those systems. By telling their own stories and doing it from a non-passive voice, so that we're literally changing the power dynamics at play that continue to victimize people in chronic poverty and hunger. That in itself as a practice is a huge thing on the way to creating systemic change; telling our own stories. So in other words, when we tell our own stories, we're able to write our own selves in as victors of those stories versus being victims."

DC Food Talks

"I am a long-life Detroiter. I grew up on the east side of Detroit and my family has kept a garden in our backyard ever since I was a kid. Where my parents come from in the Philippines – this is how people live. They live close to the earth and they have a more subsistent way of life. They are growing their own food, living off the land, hunt, fish and forage for food…My family has pretty extensive experience in the food system. My family owned a small grocery store on the west side of Detroit. It was just one of the ways we were able to continue our relationship with our cultural food. And so – what this means for me is being able to continue the traditions around growing your own food. And that cultural component is really important to me. And being in the Filipinx diaspora - I often feel like I am dislocated from my people and from the land, our ancestral land where our traditions and cultures came from. So I am attempting in a very small way by growing food to reclaim that portion of my identity and our traditions. So it is more than just creating more access to foods, but it also reclaiming a part of my identity and culture. I find in doing so, [there are] a lot of healing components, benefits, and impacts to reclaiming those traditions and identities."

Documentary

documentary

documentary

Anastasia Shub

"We have to look at all our basic needs - food, water, shelter, transportation, energy, governance, learning - and use urban agriculture as a model for building power around all those basic needs. In the same way as we are growing our food - we need to create models of self-reliance and self-determination all across that spectrum. But as long as we're relying on capitalism to provide for our needs - we are always gonna be beholden to those in power that are making decisions on our behalf."

Boggs Center Newsletter

"there is ancient wisdom in fear, sadness and loneliness. they are messages from deep within that are translated into tears, clenched fists and sore backs from carrying their weight. we embody ancestral intuition that has accumulated over countless generations. these gifts require deep reflection to honor their lessons. it takes a swell of gratitude and relaxed ego to crack them open."